News:

Good day, denizens of OC.net! Per our tradition, the forum will shut down for Clean Monday, beginning around 9pm Sunday evening (2/18) and ending around 9pm Monday evening (2/19). In the spirit of the coming Forgiveness Sunday, I ask you to forgive me for the sins I have committed against you. At the end of Great and Holy Week, the Forum will also shut down for Holy Friday and Holy Saturday (times TBA).

Only males are allowed entrance into Mount Athos, which is called "Garden of the Virgin" by monks,[4] and Orthodox Christians take precedence in the permit issuance procedure. Only males over the age of 18 who are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church are allowed to live on Athos, either as monks or as workers.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who can watch the watchmen?"No one is paying attention to your post reports"Why do posters that claim to have me blocked keep sending me pms and responding to my posts? That makes no sense.

The IHOP idea is a good idea, kind of like some of what happens in our monasteries and convents except with less discipline. Seriously, I think there are some very sincere people in them and that God is using them for things. But as I read from someone on Mount Athos monks have been engaged in 24 hour a day prayer and worship for a thousand years its not the new thing the Protestants would likely imagine it to be.

Again as to IHOP one description I've heard of it involves a room with a news ticker constantly putting up prayer requests from all over the world, and always people there praying for them, this I think can't be a totally bad thing. Same for the praise bands. It may not compare to Orthodox worship which I wouldn't want to change but even if there are some bad apples there, and I'm not saying there are, but if there are I think there are many more people who are very sincerely worshiping God and anytime your doing that with all your heart I don't think it can be all bad.

As to Orthodox prayer the level one as someone called it is scripted but it teaches us things. It teaches us how to view God, how to view ourselves in relationship to God. Priorities in prayer etc. and as part of the Sacred Tradition it may even teach us things we may not learn elsewhere. Not that there's no room for unscripted "pouring your heart out to God" prayer, but even that can be informed, educated, and improved upon by what we learn from the scripted prayers.

I've been in an IHOP service before... it was really quite amazing. Not everyone's cup of tea of course, but I felt God was there.

May the road rise up to meet you.May the wind always be at your back.May the sun shine warm upon your face,the rain fall soft upon your fieldsand until we meet again,may God hold you in the palm of his han